social media for business

Is social media a trick or a treat for your business? Many business owners are still unsure about how to approach social media for their business. Here are three steps to take before engaging in social media for your business:

Step 1 – Define why you think social media will work for your business and what you are going to use social media for. Are you trying to create sales, leads, brand awareness, or customer engagement? You must know what you want before you begin.

First let me say social media networks like Twitter and Facebook are a must use marketing tool for most businesses. What I mean by social media Kool-Aid is the common pattern for new social media users. I typically see two types of common patterns or Kool-Aid drinkers out of the business community when applying social media.

Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are a complete waste of time to business professionals! I remember hearing this statement a few months ago from a branding expert. I immediately looked around the room and felt sorry for all the businesses who might actually follow this advice. It’s shocking when you realize just how many supposed marketing and business experts still turn their head at the value of social media. Clearly they just do not understand or do not want to take the time to understand the benefits of social media for business.

Did you see a twitter or Facebook logo at the bottom of the screen while watching CNN? Did you see a recent commercial or advertisement with just the Facebook business page listed for your favorite brand? No website… just the Facebook website.

Everybody else is doing it, right? All types of companies are turning to Social Media. Large fortune 100 companies, big local companies, all the way down to your favorite coffee shop down the street. Is everyone just jumping on the band wagon or is this social media stuff really working?

So, what does an April Fool’s Martini (see recipe below) have to do with your social media strategy?
Well, that depends on how you use it. But, if you read our Candy Cane Martini Post in December, we got you started. Periodically, we’ll offer you additional martini recipes to help you stop, take a pause and measure your social media campaigns. Measure? Yes, measure. We mean estimate the ROI and effectiveness of your social media strategies.

Linkedin gives you the ability to control your online identity. Have you Googled yourself lately? What comes up for you? It is all positive? Maybe a few negatives? Or worse does nothing come up at all? Linkedin profiles quickly rise to the top of search results letting you control what people see about you and your company online. Let me say this in another way… You are in complete control of what people see about you on your Linkedin profile therefore you are in complete control on what people read about you online! You must take advantage and leverage this!

Have you ever wanted to add a follow me on twitter badge or box on your facebook profile? For many facebook users the idea of having a twitter badge is enticing but the steps to do it can be a bit confusing. To make it easy for you I have listed 7 simple steps to add a follow me on twitter badge or box on your facebook profile below.

It might be hard to believe but many business owners still have the impression twitter is just a waste of time. They truly don’t understand how using twitter will have a positive impact on their business. So the question you may be asking yourself is, how you start attracting new customers and prospects from twitter? The answer is my building relationships! It all starts with building relationships and on twitter there are a few different stages.

I attended Gravity Summit at Harvard University on August 31. Thanks to Rodney Rumford and Beverly Macy for another terrific multimedia learning experience! This was the 3rd Gravity Summit I’ve attended and they just keep getting better every time! I promise to write another post covering the entire event in detail but I just had to write my first post about one of my all time favorites, Gary Vaynerchuk, who shared the Keynote stage with MC Hammer (yes, THAT MC Hammer! Mr. “Can’t Touch This” Himself).